Politicizing the IRS is a Political Cancer Symptom

The commissioner of internal revenue has ordered his agency to delay collecting back taxes from Hurricane Katrina victims until after the Nov. 7 elections and the holiday season, saying he did so in part to avoid negative publicity.

The commissioner, Mark W. Everson, who has close ties to the White House, said in an interview that postponing collections until after the midterm elections, along with postponing notices to people who failed to file tax returns, was a routine effort to avoid casting the Internal Revenue Service in a bad light.

Except that it isn’t routine at all: “four former I.R.S. commissioners, who served under presidents of both parties, said that doing so because of an election was improper and indefensible.”

Kudos to David Cay Johnston for doing a little fact checking.

Nixon politicized the IRS. Are there any bad habits of Nixon’s left that we haven’t seen in this lot? (Not to mention all their newly-minted bad habits.)

There is a cancer on the Presidency. And this is one of its many symptoms.